A new political scenario will emerge in Malaysia if the UMNO and PAS members in the Kuala Kangsar by-election on June 18 can rise above petty party politics and vote as patriotic Malaysian voters in support of the AMANAH candidate, Professor Ahmad Termizi to save Malaysia from widespread corruption and rank injustices in the country.

Although the Kuala Kangsar by-election is a four-cornered contest, the real battle is between the UMNO/Barisan Nasional and the AMANAH/Pakatan Harapan candidates.

It is true that the PAS candidate had achieved the best results in the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary constituency since Merdeka in 1957 in the 13th General Election three years ago – losing by only 1,082 votes.

In the 13th GE, PAS secured 13,136 votes against UMNO’s 14,218 votes, with PAS securing 46.6% of the votes cast.

But the 13,136 votes won by the PAS candidate in 2013 were not just PAS votes, but votes for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comprising DAP, PKR and PAS.

Now, as Pakatan Rakyat is no more because of the refusal of the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to honour the PR Common Policy Framework and be a PR team-player, it is impossible for the PAS candidate to poll more votes than the 13,136 votes three years ago.

In fact, PAS is likely to lose more than five thousand votes as compared to the 2013 General Election result, bearing in mind that PAS won 9,277 votes in the 2008 GE and 5,748 votes in the 2004 General Election.

Only the AMANAH/PH candidate can defeat the juggernaut election machinery of UMNO/BN in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections, although the Kuala Kangsar by-election will be an even more uphill and difficult battle than the Sungai Besar by-election. Read the rest of this entry »

What a remarkable line-up of strange bedfellows. Has-beens. Wannabe Arabs. Back-stabbers. ‘Devout’ Muslims with plenty to say on hudud, but not a word about punishing corrupt politicians. Back-pedallers. Misoygynists.

This new political line-up hopes to become a formidable opposition force, the ‘third force’ of Malaysian politics; but it is more farcical than forceful. The combo is more of a vanity political coalition, than a serious political entity.

The Ikatan president and former tourism minister, Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, had a joint press conference (PC) with Hadi Awang, the PAS president, about the new pact.
The Malaysian equivalent of Donald Trump (physical attributes), and a wannabe Arab. How can anyone have any confidence in this duo? Their track record is not a glittering success.

Hadi flirts with anyone whom he thinks can serve his purpose, but does not seem to realise that he is being used. He ignored the wise words of PAS’ spiritual adviser, Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, to be wary of Umno Baru, but like Adam in the Garden of Eden, he ate the forbidden fruit, and today, his party has been banished from Eden. Read the rest of this entry »

If by some miracle, it is possible to restitch back Pakatan Rakyat and get back together the three parties, DAP, PKR and PAS (plus a second miracle of re-uniting PAS and Parti Amanah Negara) under one roof for the 14th General Election, could the reconstituted Pakatan Rakyat defeat the UMNO/BN coalition by winning more parliamentary seats than the 13GE?

I don’t think so although UMNO in the 14th GE will be more fractured and weaker than in the 13GE with Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Prime Minister haunted and hounded by so many political and economic scandals as compared to the general election two years ago.

This is because the reconstituted Pakatan Rakyat in the 14th General Election will be fighting a losing battle just to win back the same number of parliamentary and state assembly seats, for the most important element which led to the 53% popular support for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th General Election, resulting in 89 Parliamentary and 229 State Assembly seats (minus Sarawak) will be missing, i.e. absolute trust and confidence in the PR because of the people’s belief in the adherence and unswerving commitment of DAP, PKR and PAS to the PR Common Policy Framework and the PR consensus operational principle.

I am reminded of the nursery rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

I am awed by the 146-table dinner organized by Triang DAP Branch in conjunction with “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” nation-wide campaign tonight, which is not only the biggest-ever dinner organized by Triang DAP Branch but also the biggest-ever dinner in the history of Triang.

My six-month suspension from Parliament should be the cause of a new national awareness of the need to achieve two fundamental changes in Malaysia – the urgency to have a new Parliament where Members of Parliament are not prevented or persecuted for voicing out the innermost concerns of the people of Malaysia; and secondly, for an end to the rampant corruption, abuses of power and violation of the principles of accountability, transparency and good democratic governance illustrated by the growing list of political, economic, good governance and nation building scandals plaguing the country.

Public anger and protests against an irresponsible and unaccountable government resulting in scandals like Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM2.6 billion and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals are not just confined to Opposition ranks of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara leaders, members and supporters.

I believe patriotic, right-thinking and justice-loving members of UMNO and Barisan Nasional parties, whether in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak or Sabah, also cannot agree, accept or tolerate Najib’s twin mega scandals or the host of economic, political, good governance and nation-building injustices surfacing in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

The country is in unchartered waters with unprecedented fracture and fragmentation on both sides of the political divide – both with the UMNO-led coalition of Barisan Nasional and the splintered Opposition.

The gravity of the political situation in the governing coalition is best illustrated by the warning by the UMNO Deputy President and former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at a gathering of 1,000 Barisan Nasional leaders in Pagoh on Sunday that Malay support for UMNO has dwindled to 30 per cent while 78 per cent of Malaysians are dissatisfied with how the government was handling the economy.

Muhyiddin said the level of Chinese support for the government has also dwindled, from 13 percent in the last general election to only five percent at present.

Muhyiddin blamed UMNO’s woes primarily to Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” twin mega-scandals and warned that if the UMNO decline is not corrected within the next two years, UMNO may lose in the 14th General Election.

As Muhyiddin rightly pointed out, this is the first time approval for the government among Malays has fallen below 50 percent since Merdeka Centre began recording the data in February 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Malaysians can now hope again for political change in next general election after the roller-coaster ride of high hopes and virtual despair in the two years since the 13th GE in May 2013.

The 13GE in May 2013 was the highest water-mark of hopes of Malaysians for political change and the end of UMNO rule since Merdeka in 1957 and the beginning of a new Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government with a new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Although Pakatan Rakyat comprising DAP, PKR and PAS won the majority of 53% of the popular votes, Najib continued as the first minority Prime Minister when the UMNO/BN coalition won 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats with only 47% of the popular votes.

The two years after the nation-wide disappointment at missing the opportunity for political change in Putrajaya on 13GE Polling Day on 5th May 3013 because of gerrymandering and unfair, unjust and undemocratic redelineation of parliamentary constituencies can be likened to a roller-coaster ride by Malaysians of high hopes for political change and virtual despair that such political change is possible because of an increasingly divided Pakatan Rakyat.

After the 13 general election, Pakatan Rakyat existed only in name – as PAS decided to renege on its commitment to adhere to the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework as well as the Pakatan Rakyat operational principle of consensus.

In retrospect, if Pakatan Rakyat had captured the majority of the parliamentary seats and the mandate to form the Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 13th General Election, Pakatan Rakyat would have been confronted with it first crisis even before the Pakatan Rakyat Federal Government was formed, as the PAS President had refused to accept Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister candidate.

With the history of the PAS President refusing not only to accept Anwar as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, but also the PKR President Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Mentri Besar of Selangor, as well as his decision to renege from th PR Common Policy Framework particularly on the hudud and local government election issues, what is the basis to hope that there could be a revival of Pakatan Rakyat co-operation and unity? Read the rest of this entry »

Forget which Pakatan for now. But let’s talk about the opposition and our coalition for all its worth.

I always say that I see the world in many shades — and really that makes me unsuited for politics. It is much easier to present a monochrome world, an either-or proposition, a yes-or-no question. Simply because these are… simpler.

So that I look at social media today, many people are whacking Pakatan for failing, I feel that there are more shades to the situation than the ones presented. Read the rest of this entry »

The launching of Parti Amanah Negara (AMANAH) in Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency a week after AMANAH’s official launch in Johor is a sign of AMANAH’s thrust and momentum in preparation for the next general elections which must be held in less than 30 months.

In the 14th General Election, Johor will the front-line state and Johor will head the list of states Pakatan Harapan aims to win and form the State Government on the way to Federal power in Putrajaya.

Until the 2008 General Election, Johor was the impregnable and invincible state of Umno/BN, so much so that UMNO/BN leaders boasted about making Johore a zero-Opposition state in the 12th GE in 2008.

However, the political landscape in Johor underwent a drastic and fundamental change in the 12th and 13th General Elections, and Johor politics will never be the same again as compared to the first five decades after Merdeka in 1957.

In the 13th GE in 2013, Pakatan Rakat comprising DAP, PKR and PAS achieved the “Great Leap” forward in Johor with PR representation in the Johor State Assembly tripled from six to 18 seats, one seat short of denying the BN its two-thirds majority in the Johor State Assembly.

If there was a fair and democratic “one man, one vote” delineation of constituencies, PR should have won another eight seats, i.e.26 out of a total of 56 State Assembly seat in Johore as PR secured 46% per cent of the total votes cast for the Johore State Assembly seats.

The Opposition parties are not asking for another trebling of State Assembly seats in the 14th GE, but only to double our seats from 18 to 36 seats, which will see the formation of a Pakatan Harapan state government in Johor. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations for the launching of the Johor Parti Amanah Negara tonight are in order, for we are witnesses to history in the making.

The launch of Johor Parti Amanah tonight is a historic first step for Johor to be the engine head of the second phase of political change in Malaysia leading from the south to create an united and democratic Malaysia with good governance and socio-economic justice for all.

Just eight years ago, nobody would dare to think or dream that political change in Malaysia or Johor was possible.

In fact, the UMNO/BN leaders were so cocky and arrogant about the “untouchability” and “invincibility” of Johor as their “fixed deposit state” that their 2008 General Election campaign theme was to make Johor a “zero-Opposition” state.

The 12th and 13th General Elections in 2008 and 2013 have completely changed the picture and rewritten the electoral and political arithmetic in Johor and Malaysia, and the question is not “whether” but “when” the UMNO/BN coalition government will fall in Nusajaya and Putrajaya. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Dzukefly Ahmad, the secretary of Gerakan Harapan Baru, expects a new Islamist party to be formed by Merdeka Day on August 31.

If a new Islamist party is formed by Merdeka Day, hopefully a new Pakatan Baru, whether called Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, Harapan Rakyat or any other name, would be formed by Malaysia Day and be the rallying point of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region for fundamental political changes in Malaysia to save Malaysia from the disasters of a rogue and failed state.

The seven-year Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015 had been a seminal period in the political life of Malaysia, arousing anew the hopes and aspirations of Malaysians, cutting across race, religion, region, gender and age, for the fulfillment of the Malaysian Dream where every Malaysian can achieve his or her potential in the country, and to be treated as an equal citizen with political freedom, human rights, economic justice and enjoying all the human dignity and basic socio-economic rights which every human being in a modern society in the 21st century is entitled to.

Unfortunately, the Pakatan Rakyat died after fighting one general election in 2013, breaking the hearts of all Malaysians who had vested such high hopes and trust in PR. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, the PAS Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man called for the revival of a united opposition amid the twin scandals of 1MDB and RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s oersonal bank accounts in AmBank just before the 13th General Election.

He said this was the “crucial hour for all opposition parties to unite” and sit together to find common ground and minimise their differences.

I admit to great wariness of such a call after the early death of Pakatan Rakyat despite the high hopes and trust placed on it by Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region rooting for the first political change on the national landscape, vesting it with 52% of the popular vote in the 13th General Election. Read the rest of this entry »

DAP Johor State Assemblyman for Pekan Nenas Yeo Tung Siong told me just now that Ayer Baloi tonight breaks record with the biggest crowd ever in history, signifying the powerful public support for Gerakan Harapan Baru and hopes for political change after nearly six decades of UMNO/Alliance/Barisan Nasional rule.

However, we want to create history not only in Ayer Baloi but in Johore and the whole of Malaysia in the forthcoming 14th General Election – when we are not only setting our sights on the Federal government in Putrajaya but also the state government in Nusajaya.

For over half a century, Johore had been regarded as an impregnable fortress for UMNO/MCA/MIC coalition and an invincible UMNO/Barisan Nasional “fixed deposit state”.

UMNO/BN leaders were so arrogant that they even talked about Johore being a “zero-opposition” state until such cockiness were buried by the historic Pakatan Rakyat breakthrough in the 13th General Election in 2013, winning 18 State Assembly seats – one seat short of denying UMNO/BN two-thirds majority in the Johore State Assembly.

But now Pakatan Rakyat is no more and the country needs a new Islamic political party which is all-embracing and inclusive which can unite not only Muslims and Malays but also non-Muslims and non-Malays, in other words, with all Malaysians to achieve the Malaysian Dream of ensuring that all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, are entitled to basic human rights and dignity as citizens of a modern society. Read the rest of this entry »

I welcome the sensible and Malaysian-centric stand and approach of Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) that the pressing issues of the country are political reforms and socio-economic injustices like the killing of Teoh Beng Hock and 1MDB scandal and not hudud implementation.

Khalid Samad, the GHB MP for Shah Alam, has told The Malaysian Insider that GHB would be consistent on this, which clearly differentiated it from PAS.

Khalid said:

“We won’t be doing a U- turn, not like PAS saying in the past that hudud is not a priority and then suddenly making it into something that is the only issue of concern.

“For Harapan Baru, it is not a priority, from our understanding it is the last item to be implemented when everything else is in place.

“There are other issues like national unity, the economy, political conflicts which has to be addressed. That would be the priority.”

I had in fact tried to save Pakatan Rakyat from from being killed by PAS Muktamar in June when two weeks before the PAS Muktamar, I proposed an Eight-Year “Save PR” Roadmap by all three PR parties – DAP, PKR and PAS – reaffirming the PR Common Policy Framework which had won the support of 52% of the electorate in the 13th General Election. Read the rest of this entry »

JULY 23 —Many Malaysians are understandably dismayed by the recent break-up of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), a seven-year-old coalition that had been cobbled together by force of necessity following the unprecedented results of the 12th General Election in 2008.

In the aftermath of the landmark polls, which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition losing its customary two-thirds Parliamentary majority for the very first time, and in the process also relinquishing control over five out of 13 state governments, the three main opposition parties of DAP, PKR and Pas suddenly found themselves in the awkward position of having won enough seats to form five state governments – together. Thus, as entrenched differences were set aside for the sake of pragmatism, a tripartite coalition pact was forged.

For the most part, the arrangement functioned. By the next General Election in 2013, despite visible hairline cracks, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition was able to present itself as a viable alternative to the decades-long domination of the BN. This premise was confirmed by the results of the 13th General Election (GE13), which saw the three-party coalition picking up 52 per cent of the popular vote – but unfortunately denied the right to form the Federal Government, thanks to creative gerrymandering and malapportionment of seats.

Alas, that was to be the pinnacle of the PR story. Everything began to slide downhill after that. Aggressive goading by the dominant, Umno-controlled Malay media, quickly saw the Malay-Muslim ethno-religious nationalist agenda gaining traction. Coupled by factional infighting within Pas, this led to the resurgence of highly divisive issues such as the shariah criminal code, or hudud law.

In the end, amidst broken promises and much mudslinging between and within the PR component parties, Pas capitulated by ushering in a new slate of right-wing hawks as leaders, and by means of a motion to cut ties with the DAP during its general assembly, the fate of the coalition was sealed. Read the rest of this entry »

Three days ago, I posed the question whether PAS could lose Kelantan in the next 14th General Election.

I said that based on the 13th General Election performance, if there is a 4% swing of voters against PAS in Kelantan in the next poll, PAS will lose power in the state it had governed for 25 years since 1990.

Is a 4% swing in a state an unlikely happening?

In the 13th General Election in Kedah, PAS and Pakatan Rakyat lost the Kedah State Government because there was a 3.8% swing of the voters against PAS.

The voter swing against PAS was even more overwhelming as it was nearly four-fold during the 2004 General Election in Terengganu, where there was a 15% swing of voters against PAS, sweeping out the Terengganu PAS State Government after only one term of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi as the Terengganu Mentri Besar. Read the rest of this entry »

With the demise of Pakatan Rakyat as a result of the PAS Muktamar resolution on June 3, 2015, DAP nation-wide must be prepared for three-cornered contests, both parliamentary and state assembly, in the next general elections.

DAP will co-operate with all progressive political parties and forces, including PKR and the progressive PAS leaders who are in the process of forming a new political party, to save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices and collapse of good governance so as to re-set the country on the correct course towards an united, harmonious, ethical, democratic, just, progressive and prosperous Malaysia.

I feel sad at the demise of Pakatan Rakyat after seven years of a common political struggle based on the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework (CPF) and the operational consensus principle that any PR decision must be based on the consensus of the three component parties, but when the PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi repeatedly violated the PR CPF and the PR consensus principle, even ignoring the decision of the previous PAS Central Committee, followed by the PAS Muktmar resolution to sever ties between PAS and DAP, we must accept the unmistakable signs that the PR had died. Read the rest of this entry »